Monday, July 1, 2013

June produce totals

Every time I pull something from the garden, I bring it inside, weigh it, and record the weights in my journal. I do this for this moment. This is the moment when I take my efforts and put them into numbers and dollars that tell me just how much my hard work is paying off.

Here we go:

Tomatoes:
We harvested 21 pounds of tomatoes during the month of June. The majority of the tomatoes are the moderately sized "Early Girl" variety, but we had quite a few of the "Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter" variety as well. Our largest Mortgage Lifter was 14 1/2 ounces, and it's the one to beat this summer.
Green beans:
We have a combination of pole beans and bush beans, and they have been producing quite well. Next year I hope to have many more plants going, so the numbers will be up. In June, we pulled 2.5 lbs of green beans. I love to cook them in chicken broth, just until they are crisp-tender. It gives them a wonderful flavor without overpowering the yummy natural flavor of the bean. I also skillet sauté them with some garlic and onions, or there's the old staple of a short steaming, served with salt & pepper.

Speaking of Pepper....
Peppers! The Guy is so impatient... he just WILLS those peppers to turn red... We have had 1.28 lbs of hot peppers, and we have stuffed and BBQed every single one.

The Giant Marconi Red bush hasn't given us much yet, but it will... it's full and they are all starting to change to that lovely burgundy red. The first one we pulled was 8 1/2 ounces, and it's the one to beat. They have a yummy mild flavor. If the Guy liked sausage, which he doesn't, I'd say that they would be a great pepper to use with sausage, peppers and onions, but since we don't eat it around here, the Garden Diva and I just dip them into ranch dressing and call it a day.

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photo courtesy of foodsubs.com

Cukes:
The last thing we pulled from the garden in June was cukes. I had two lovely lemon cukes. They are delicious. They have a very light, sweet flavor, and are very crispy and delicious. The two lemon cukes totaled 8 oz. I had one burpless green cuke that was 11 1/2 ounces. It had a nice, thin skin which would have been perfectly fine to eat, but I peeled it anyway. I am really looking forward to more of both kinds of cukes.

So let's break it down in terms of $$:
these are standard prices here in CA, not sale prices: